Droning on the “Af-Pak” border

The story was terrible, 28 (later corrected to 24) Pakistani soldiers killed by US attack helicopters and other aircraft.

 

To soothe the shock, US forces said they were responding to cross-border firing, but the story looks thin and stinks of cover-up, arrogance and lies.

 

The first point of issue would be to ask how it is that the US, fighting across Pakistan’s border and launching continuous attacks at Pakistan’s people along the borders, was so completely unaware of where Pakistani soldiers are deployed…fighting America’s war by killing their own people! US forces, euphemistically called “NATO forces”, have to be completely incompetent if they don’t even keep track of the military movements of its ally of convenience in this idiotic “War!” against and unseen, unknown enemy.

 

On the other hand, maybe the US forces ARE completely incompetent. To be sure, they have the capability to kill at will, anywhere in the world. assuredly, they can send any country “back to the Stone Age” (a la Wolfowitz threat to Iraq) within a couple of days, but that is nothing amazing; any county can do the same if they have the same Weapons of Mass Destruction as the US. The trick is not in destroying those who oppose Rome, the trick is to weaken or destroy the enemy without recruiting many times more enemies in the process…and STILL not have victory, which in this case, remains indefinable. Don’t look now, but it looks like we are about to declare “Victory!” in Iraq and leave and the same “Victory!” Afghanistan is following soon.

 

Okay, the US had no idea of Pakistani troop deployment in spite of the hundreds of Drone surveillance sorties every week. It does make one wonder how they figure out who to kill with their Drone attacks, doesn’t it?

On the other hand, it also underscores why the US is busily killing Pakistanis on a daily basis and calling them “militants” “irregardless” of whether they are old men, young men, women or children. I am reminded of the Cold War period when the militaries of South American countries killed hundreds and thousands of its own people, calling them “communists” and then getting masses of money and weapons from Uncle Sam.

 

The US had no idea that these were Pakistani troops, fine. The US also said it was not possible to be certain that the “cross-border firing” they didn’t quite receive, was from the location of the soldiers or, from some others, not too far away. If this was indeed the case, then why attack so ferociously?

 

The slaughter also did not happen over a scant minute of bombing and shooting; apparently the US attack took well over half an hour…during which time, the Pakistani field commander had the opportunity to call the senior commanders in Afghanistan to tell them to call off the attack. But the attack did not end until every Pakistani soldier was dead or seriously injured.

 

The US has become so casual and unthinking about killing Pakistanis and Afghans that absolutely no thought is given before the kill. Of course, the Pakistani leadership and the Afghan leadership play their role well by complaining loudly and publicly while still allowing the US complete freedom to kill anyone, anywhere they want…all the US has to do is to continue to give “aid”…massive war toys so the local militaries can enjoy killing with the same ease as the Americans and masses of money so the leaderships can squirrel away tens and hundreds of millions of our dollars…in American and European banks!

 

The façade of protest is already in full swing; Pakistan has condemned the slaughter in no uncertain terms…”most seriously”!

Pakistan has also shut down the supply route to Afghanistan.

and by God, get out of the Pakistani air base (Shamsi) used by US drones. in Baluchistan…now!

 

I’ll bet the US feels the “War!” is now lost!

 

The real facts are somewhat different; the goal is not to punish Rome, the goal is to make the Pakistani public feel their honor is preserved. I am certain the US and the Pakistanis have rehearsed this dance so often that they can dance it in their sleep.

The condemnation is for public consumption; already the US ambassador to Pakistan has issued a statement regretting (“any soldiers who may have been killed or injured”) loss of life in this operation.

The supply route to Afghanistan is shut down…for the moment; there are more than enough reserves in Afghanistan to keep the US military going without a misstep until Pakistan quietly restores the access to supplies.

Shamsi air base was not used very much any more because of some earlier sensitivities that the US had to face, shutting down the base for the US is meaningless because the drones in Afghanistan are more than adequate to continue the surveillance and the killings.

 

Notably, Pakistan has NOT banned Pakistani airspace to the US…THAT would put a crimp in the continuing slaughters of Pakistanis by the US. Pakistan has also not banned US SEAL and other covert “operations” within Pakistan; these continue nightly and sometimes, daily, killing Pakistanis with the same casual thoughtlessness as a butcher in an abattoir.

 

No, nothing has changed in the continuing saga of slaughter in the name of “Freedom” except for the curtains in front of the stage.

 

What would happen if Pakistan continued to permit the killing of Pakistanis along the border and further inside but put just a couple of conditions to the US. Kill whoever you like, but before or after the killing account for EVERY death by publicly presenting proof, incontrovertible proof, not just “suspicions”, that the dead and injured are indeed “militants” and an active threat to US and Afghanistan. If such proof cannot be presented, then the US must issue an apology to the survivors and a million dollars for each of the dead not proven to be “militants”.

 

Why not?

Is a life not worth anything unless it is American?

Is it not incumbent upon a country engaged in a “righteous ‘War!'” to make certain that they are only killing those who are the terrible terrorists that the US claims they are?

At least, it may cause the kids in fatigues, who are sitting in Texas and Louisiana as they press buttons to kill more Pakistanis, to hesitate and think, before they kill someone based on a hunch…

 

I guess the big question is, what is a Pakistani’s life worth to Pakistan?